Hussein, M. H. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2020

Hidden in plain sight: The effects of BCG vaccination in COVID-19 pandemic

To investigate the relationship between BCG vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 by bioinformatic approach. Two datasets for Sars-CoV-2 infection group and BCG-vaccinated group were downloaded. Differentially Expressed Genes were identified. Gene ontology and pathways were functionally enriched, and networking was constructed in NetworkAnalyst. Lastly, correlation between post-BCG vaccination and COVID-19 transcriptome signatures were established. A total of 161 DEGs (113 upregulated DEGs and 48 downregulated genes) were identified in the Sars-CoV-2 group. In the pathway enrichment analysis, cross-reference of upregulated KEGG pathways in Sars-CoV-2 with downregulated counterparts in the BCG-vaccinated group, resulted in the intersection of 45 common pathways, accounting for 86.5% of SARS-CoV-2 upregulated pathways. Of these intersecting pathways, a vast majority were immune and inflammatory pathways with top significance in IL-17, TNF, NOD-like receptors, and NF-{kappa}B signaling pathways. Our data suggests BCG-vaccination may incur a protective role in COVID-19 patients until a targeted vaccine is developed. Supplementary Materials(https://drive.google.com/open?id=15Na738L282XNaQAJUh0cZf1WoG9jJfzJ)

immunology↗

bioRxiv2018

Molecular analysis of long non-coding RNA GAS5 and microRNA-34a expression signature in common solid tumors: A pilot study

Accumulating evidence indicates that non-coding RNAs including microRNAs (miRs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are aberrantly expressed in cancer, providing promising biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and/or therapeutic targets. We aimed in the current work to quantify the expression profile of miR-34a and one of its bioinformatically selected partner lncRNA growth arrest-specific 5 (GAS5) in a sample of Egyptian cancer patients, including three prevalent types of cancer in our region; renal cell carcinoma (RCC), hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and glioblastoma (GB) as well as to correlate these expression profiles with the available clinicopathological data in an attempt to clarify their roles in cancer. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis was applied. Different bioinformatics databases were searched to confirm the potential miRNAs-lncRNA interactions of the selected ncRNAs in cancer pathogenesis. GAS5 was significantly under-expressed in the three types of cancer. However, levels of miR-34a greatly varied according to the tumor type; it displayed an increased expression in RCC [4.05 (1.003-22.69), p <0.001] and a decreased expression in GB [0.35 (0.04-0.95), p <0.001]. A weak negative correlation was observed between levels of GAS5 and miR-34a in GB [r = -0.39, p =0.006]. Univariate analyses revealed a correlation of GAS5 downregulation with poor disease-free survival (r = 0.31, p =0.018) and overall survival (r = 0.28, p =0.029) in RCC but not in GB, and a marginal significance correlation with a higher number of lesions in HCC. Hierarchical clustering analysis showed RCC patients among others, could be clustered by GAS5 and miR-34a co-expression profile. Our results confirm the tumor suppressor role of GAS5 in cancer and suggest its potential applicability to be a predictor of bad outcomes with other conventional markers for various types of cancer. Further functional validation studies are warranted to confirm miR-34a/GAS5 interplay in cancer.

molecular biology↗